I am proud to announce that the weapon code-named SGO is officially DIALED IN.

Hit for about 15 minutes this morning and it was a bit unwieldy (although very good at making things go fast). So I clipped a bit of lead off of the head, and it was absolutely perfect.

Came through the hitting zone nicely, serves timed nicely, (didn't reach full extension too soon) and still volleyed well (maybe not quite as good as the first guess, but far better than the second which wobbled too much).

Thing is mint, my 5/8 one should be in next week, and I'll string it up a bit looser than this one.

Indeed I have seen it. In most all its iterations over the years I have seen it! My second favorite frame of all time. Probably the frame with which I serve best.....or at least most nastily/accurately. 18x20, I presume?

Picked up 2 big containers of Appalachian Basalt this morning at the gym from one of my Colorado School of Mines professors. Getting ready for Aussie. Bro crushing hard on tennis. Meet me at NTC in the dawn early light. I will take pics of you on the wall of champions and **** off the Troll Kingdom.

Picked up 2 big containers of Appalachian Basalt this morning at the gym from one of my Colorado School of Mines professors. Getting ready for Aussie. Bro crushing hard on tennis. Meet me at NTC in the dawn early light. I will take pics of you on the wall of champions and **** off the Troll Kingdom.

I'll tell you this...
No eternal reward will forgive us now
For wasting the dawn.
Back in those days everything was simpler and more confused
One summer night, going to the pier
I ran into two young girls
The blonde one was called Freedom
The dark one, Enterprise
We talked and they told me this story
Now listen to this...
I'll tell you about Texas radio and the big beat
Soft driven, slow and mad
Like some new language
Reaching your head with the cold, sudden fury of a divine messenger
Let me tell you about heartache and the loss of god
Wandering, wandering in hopless night
Out here in the perimeter there are no stars
Out here we IS stoned
Immaculate.

Man, as nice as this thing feels normally, it is AMAZING with silicone in the handle.

Hit yesternight with a 5.5ish(?) girl, and today with the incomparable VSBabolat.

It is nice, it hits nice. The 5/8 grip makes the world of difference.

I am thinking I will get another one and use them in practice and for some hitting and hope that it will tide me over until the new Wilsons come out, and I will try to stock up on K90s in the meantime.

Man, as nice as this thing feels normally, it is AMAZING with silicone in the handle.

Hit yesternight with a 5.5ish(?) girl, and today with the incomparable VSBabolat.

It is nice, it hits nice. The 5/8 grip makes the world of difference.

I am thinking I will get another one and use them in practice and for some hitting and hope that it will tide me over until the new Wilsons come out, and I will try to stock up on K90s in the meantime.

Only hit half a dozen serves with it, and they landed closer to the baseline than the service line. I blame the rectangle grip shape, despite the fact that getting serves in the box was never my strong suit.

Only hit half a dozen serves with it, and they landed closer to the baseline than the service line. I blame the rectangle grip shape, despite the fact that getting serves in the box was never my strong suit.

J

Click to expand...

Have you ever thought about getting the Wilson Pallets from ****? I've used them and they feel pretty darn similar to the Wilson shape.

Only hit half a dozen serves with it, and they landed closer to the baseline than the service line. I blame the rectangle grip shape, despite the fact that getting serves in the box was never my strong suit.

Ok, played pretty well today. All things considered, probably slightly worse than an average day with the Wilson, but darned good for my first match with the Prestige.

I think with a month of play I would be a better doubles player with the Prestige than I am with the 90s. It is just a phenomenal doubles racquet for me. Doubles hides its weaknesses over the Wilson, and highlights its strengths.

Played 3 sets of dubs, and I returned from the Ad side.

Serve:

Great. I was a bit worried going in since I had never served with the frame before aside from six that I hit after I was done with practice Saturday which landed closer to the baseline than the service line. Wasn't an issue today, I doubled twice in three sets. Serves seemed to have plenty of zip and opposing team said my ball kicked higher than usual.

I hit an assortment of hard topspin, 3/4 kickers, and full kickers for the most part mixed in a few sliders to the deuce court, and tried to belt one flat ball which I missed horribly with.

My wide sliders to the deuce were more to the center of the box than the corner, nevermind up the line where I wanted them, and my wide kickers to the ad side were usually wide into the doubles alley. So it seemed that most of my wide serves were landing further to my right than I wanted them to land.

All in all very promising on the serve, and I felt that I had it nowhere near timed or felt out so if it is this good at first blush, I think I will be very pleased with how it ends up.

Return: I struggled with the return for most of the first two sets, and then towards the end of the second, and for the entire third buckled down and concentrated which helped immensely. Returning I feel is my best strength, and I tend to use the force when I return, or just act off instinct, but I didn't always have the racquet pointed in the right direction because of its newness, and the grip shape. I found that I had to be very conscious of the angle and direction of the racquet face, and give it a bit more of a swing than I normally do with my 90s.

I am sure it will come right around with some more reps as I began hitting quality returns regularly in the third set.

I am going to string it a bit looser next time and I think that will give it just a hair more pop off of the block returns.

Groundstrokes:

I didn't hit terribly many groundstrokes, but it performed admirably. The only thing I struggled a bit with was running forward to get a drop volley, or low dead slice, especially with the two hander. That is totally me though, not the racquet. I will be fine once I figure out the timing a bit better.

Volleys/Net: Exemplary. Awesome. Best volleying racquet I have ever used. Feels great, works great. Sneaky pop for when you are stretched out on a poach and can't get any weight behind the volley, or when you have to stretch all the way up for an overhead. I find that I make an astonishingly high number of half volleys with this frame, and assorted touch or reaction shots.

Overall:

Very promising. I am going to buy another one or two, and play with them some more. String them a bit looser to get a higher launch angle, and let me take a more aggressive vertical cut at the ball which should help it kick a bit more.

I think the more I work on figuring out the timing of this thing the more it will come around to my way of thinking. Just need to figure out how to make it sing. Right now she is just humming a bit.